Very Mindful, Very Multimodal: Digital Texts Affordances for Emergent Readers

Abstract

The increasing presence of digital texts in early literacy education demands a deeper understanding of how they shape reading comprehension and vocabulary acquisition. This scoping review explores the most current research on digital literacy, emphasizing how early readers engage with digital texts and what this means for curriculum development. With the rise of one-to-one digital devices in classrooms, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, students are reading and interacting with texts in new ways, yet research on early literacy has often lagged behind these technological shifts. Digital texts are more than digitized print; they introduce multimodal features that require different cognitive processes and instructional approaches. Findings suggest that high-quality, narrative-driven digital texts with interactive affordances can enhance meaning-making, comprehension, and vocabulary learning, especially when paired with thoughtful instructional scaffolds. However, gaps remain in understanding how students transfer literacy skills between print and digital formats and how educators can best integrate digital literacy instruction into early reading curricula. This review underscores the need for continued research into the evolving role of digital texts in literacy development, ensuring that instructional practices keep pace with the realities of 21st-century reading environments.